It is the time of year, in the northern hemisphere, where the earth is preparing itself for survival. Plants and many animal species are gorging themselves now, storing up as many nutrients as they can to sate them through the hibernation of the coming winter, while other animals are preparing large food caches that they can snack on as the land becomes temporarily barren. Those of us who celebrate Thanksgiving or a similar holiday will soon be gorging ourselves as well, a tradition much older than the holiday itself and the mutual invention of symbolic celebration for the harvest as...